Big Fish, Little Fish (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Italo Calvino
- First Published: 1950
- Type of Plot: Fable
- Time of Work: The 1940's
- Setting: Italian Riviera
- Principal Characters: Zefferino, His father, Signorina de Magistris
- Genres: Fable, Short fiction
- Subjects: Suffering, Love or romance, Depression, mental, Italy or Italians, Fishing or fishermen, Swimming or swimmers, Animals, dangerous, Joy or sorrow, Ocean
- Locales: Italy, Riviera
The Story
The boy Zefferino is completely at home in the ocean, moving effortlessly through it and relishing the beautiful denizens that he hunts and destroys. Speargun in hand, he trails a bream underwater and discovers an enclosed pond. Here he finds not only beautiful fish but also Signorina de Magistris, a fat woman wearing a bathing suit, who sits weeping on a rock. Zefferino's reactions are a mixture of sympathy and confusion: The sight of a woman crying saddens him, but he is unable to understand how the beautiful location, crammed with such a variety of beautiful fish,...
[The entire page is 1405 words long]
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